Brace for a murder & mystery weekend in the Capital

The Crime Writer's festival will have authors like Piyush Jha and Dom Hastings among others.

On a cold and rainy morning in London, authors Kishwar Desai and Namita Gokhale and two well-known crime writers from the city sat down and talked about the genre. "This led me and Kishwar to realise how genre-based fiction is an important voice in literature, quite apart from literary fiction," says Gokhale.

After the discussions in London, Gokhale, who is also the co-founder of the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), integrated the theme of 'Crime and Punishment' over the course of five days at JLF. All this led to the idea of a festival dedicated solely to the theme of crime writing, and the two of them brought in Mita Kapur "for her expertise in organising literary events," says Gokhale, adding, "Kishwar is the person who is an accomplished crime writer and me, I am the one who admires the genre. Between the three of us we have now reached the second year of Crime Writers Festival."

"The response of the first edition was tremendous. What struck all of us was the alacrity and enthusiasm the festival was received with. It does have a thrilling appeal as a genre-based festival," says Kapur.

The second edition of the festival, to be held over the weekend at the Oxford Bookstore, will bring together the best of crime writers, journalists and filmmakers under one roof. Some of the authors participating this year include Avirook Sen, Dom Hastings, Jerry Pinto, Karuna Nundy, Piyush Jha, Ravi Subramanian and Zac O-Yeah. "Each session has a strong focus area," says Kapur, when asked about the highlight of this year's edition. The Crime Writers Festival will be held at Oxford Bookstore, Connaught Place on January 16-17; 10 am to 7 pm.

Do You Like This Story? Awesome! Now share the story Too bad. Tell us what you didn't like in the comments